November 14, 2005

I know whenever anyone posts a comment on this blog, because Blogger sends me an email. You probably don't go back and look for new comments on old posts. There are thousands of old posts on this blog. You can't be looking back through all of them all the time to see if anyone has added something new. But there are, occasionally, comments on old posts that I see, so let me just point this one out today ("Ann... you have personality, I have personality, my son and daughter have personality, my wife...").

The old post of mine that collects the most belated attention is over on an alternative blog I wrote for a while when I had a temporary copy of iBlog software. There are no comments over there, but people keep finding this post and emailing me to defend the Order of the Eastern Star.

If you want to generate outré comments for your blog, take my advice: write lightheartedly about something some people take seriously.

14 comments:

Lampoon the Masons (the cult not Jackie), Scientology, needlepoint, and Slipknot and you'll generate traffic -- lots of it hate traffic (and attendant e-mails), but if they click on your ad links it's worth it right?

Though Breyer's outcome in Schaffer v. West is a federalist one that ultimately defers to the States, why he reaches his outcome is quite troubling.

Breyer, in the oral argument for Schaffer v. West, actually says: "But if I were a Member of Congress, and never thought about the issue, which I think this void in the statute suggests, I might think it would work out better if we left it up to each State to do it whatever way they wanted here, if we left it up to the Department of Education to promulgate whatever rules they wanted. Now, couldn't we hold that?"

In other words, "Why can't I decide it like a legislator would?" And if you read Breyer's dissent, he DOES JUST THAT. This paragraph is key to understanding that Breyer's dissent, literally, is legislating from the bench!

As for my moniker, yes it's an homage, but not to anything you listed. You're in the right general era, though. And it's actually a two-part homage, as the full name is Stab Masta Icepick. However, I've updated the spelling from Master to Masta to more properly fit with current usage.

I love it when someone posts a comment on the wrong post. For some reason it's always really amusing. Someone can write a very serious commentary on, say, "Breyer's outcome in Schaffer v. West" and it's rendered totally meaningless in the context of the relevant discussion.

My dad's one of the rare 33rd degree masons. My mom is a former worthy matron of the Eastern Star. Both continue their good works to their community even now in their eighties.

My father, God bless him, is the sweetest man I have ever met and whenever I attend a function in my old hometown I am treated like a celebrity just because of him. Everyone knows "Papa Don" and loves him. Children and dogs gravitate to this man like no one else I have ever seen.

To those who see evil and conspiracy in everything masonic, well, I can only shake my head and pity their ignorance. My mom and dad have given over 50 years of their life to public service in the name of these organizations and have asked for nothing in return. I feel guilty whenever I consider how little I have done compared to them.

The Masons are not a cult troy. No Mason will ever attempt to recruit you. Their rites pay homage to those who came before them, to develop good character and discipline and to reinforce the message of tolerance, humility, professionalism and service. All religious faiths are honored, none elevated and nobody in the Masons wants your soul.